Other Screening Services
As a versatile model organism, C. elegans has the advantages of high throughput and low cost in drug screening due to its simple operation, short life cycle and transparent in vivo structure. It enables efficient evaluation of drug efficacy and side effects across various pathological processes, including rare diseases. Disease-specific models such as those for sarcopenia constructed to identify promising drug candidates at an early stage.
Sarcopenia: A Case Study
Sarcopenia is a clinical syndrome characterized by a gradual loss of muscle mass and strength due to aging or other factors. It usually occurs in older people, but can also be caused by some diseases, long-term inactivity or malnutrition. It leads to physical weakness, limited mobility, and an increased risk of falls and fractures.
Why C. elegans for Sarcopenia Research?
Despite structural differences from human muscles, C. elegans shares significant similarities in muscle structure, metabolic pathways, and aging processes. This makes it an effective model for studying sarcopenia:
Muscle Degeneration with Aging: C. elegans muscle cells undergo age-related degeneration providing insights into the molecular mechanisms of sarcopenia .
Functional Evaluation: Muscle function can be evaluated by observing its movement ability (such as digging ability, etc.).
Advanced Tools: Gene-editing technology enables the expression of muscle-decline marker proteins (eg: fluorescent markers), allowing precise observation of muscle cells degeneration.
Our Services
C. elegans Muscle Strength Assessment (for related services, see Caenorhabditis elegans phenotyping services)
Observation of the Sarcomere Structure in Caenorhabditis elegans
Figure 1: The sarcomere structure of C. elegans between the blank and linolenic acid groups
(Lu zhang et al . food&function , 2022）
